i'm trying to find a switching IC that has multiple inputs and a single output (so that at any given time there is only one input connected to the output) something like a multiplexer but much simpler, in particular i need it to have a single control input, so that at switches the inputs in order, and every time it gets a pulse on the control pin it switches to the next switch and when it reaches the end goes back to the first...
does anyone have an idea if there is an IC that does that or any other way of tackling this issue?

tshuck thanks for your reply, is there a way you can describe exactly how to do that, i have very limited knowledge of how those components work, that's why i was looking for an IC that i can connect to my arduino controller and using only one pin to do the switching, what i'm trying to do is, i'm trying to read multiple voltages trough a single analog input pin on my micro-controller and using one digital pin to control the switching array

...then you need to be sure that you are using an analog multiplexer...

If you were to connect the outputs of the counter to the select lines of the multiplexer, it would cycle between each of the inputs. The counter clock would be your control line, in that each time you pulse this line, the count will increase, switching which channel is routed to your controller...

You'll need to hook up the lowest four bits of the counter to the mux.... 1 would be your clock input, or control line to advance each selected channel...

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i'm looking at the counters data sheet and have no idea how that thing works..

I was a bit confused myself, I've never seen a synchronous device not label a clock input, but that is only because it is designed to allow a oscillator(RC or crystal) to clock it, so it doesn't need to be fed a clock signal...

You must have some method to determine which channel the mux is connected to (I assume you need that). One way would be to add a reset line from the controller to the counter to reset it to zero at a known time. From there you can determine which channel is on by the number of clock pulses from that point.

so i should reset the counter every time the program reaches the last value in the sequence and start over from 0? let say it goes from 0-9 every time i sends 9 pulses it resets the counter and starts back from 0.

so i should reset the counter every time the program reaches the last value in the sequence and start over from 0? let say it goes from 0-9 every time i sends 9 pulses it resets the counter and starts back from 0.

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Yes, that's the typical way to do it. So you need one line for the count and one line for the reset from the controller.

There are ways to do everything with one line but that requires more logic in front of the counter. For example, sending a long pulse for the reset, and short pulses for the count, which are then separated into separate reset and clock pulses by the logic circuit.

so i should reset the counter every time the program reaches the last value in the sequence and start over from 0? let say it goes from 0-9 every time i sends 9 pulses it resets the counter and starts back from 0.

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He's saying that since you don't know where the counter will start up, you need a way to synchronize the count of the counter and the count in the controller. Otherwise, you could be reading channel X when you meant to read β... If you set up a startup delay on the Load input to the counter, you can avoid this as it will always start up in a predefined count...

You don't need to reset multiple times, just once to synchronize the devices...

What do u mean by a start up delay, and what is the load, is that the start up pulse, or reset?

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Okay... so the counter has a load function which will load a predetermined value into the counter(usually 0, but can be anything)...

The start up delay I'm referring to is basically a capacitor which will start at 0V and raise to Vcc, depending on arrangement, and will load the load value, then enable your controller and counter to have a common starting point...

You don't need to reset multiple times, just once to synchronize the devices...

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Ideally that's true, but if there's ever any glitch that upsets the count while the circuit is operating, then it can get out of sync and won't recover until you restart the circuit. That's why a sync pulse is often sent every frame in such circuits.